"You have made it so clear," I said, "that I want you to go farther.
You have shown me how I entered the room, and how I came to take the
Diamond. But Miss Verinder saw me leave the room again, with the jewel
in my hand. Can you trace my proceedings from that moment? Can you guess
what I did next?"
"That is the very point I was coming to," he rejoined. "It is a question
with me whether the experiment which I propose as a means of vindicating
your innocence, may not also be made a means of recovering the lost
Diamond as well. When you left Miss Verinder's sitting-room, with
the jewel in your hand, you went back in all probability to your own
room----"
"Yes? and what then?"
"It is possible, Mr. Blake--I dare not say more--that your idea of
preserving the Diamond led, by a natural sequence, to the idea of hiding
the Diamond, and that the place in which you hid it was somewhere in
your bedroom. In that event, the case of the Irish porter may be your
case. You may remember, under the influence of the second dose of
opium, the place in which you hid the Diamond under the influence of the
first."
It was my turn, now, to enlighten Ezra Jennings. I stopped him, before
he could say any more.
"You are speculating," I said, "on a result which cannot possibly take
place. The Diamond is, at this moment, in London."
He started, and looked at me in great surprise.
"In London?" he repeated. "How did it get to London from Lady Verinder's
house?"
"Nobody knows."
"You removed it with your own hand from Miss Verinder's room. How was it
taken out of your keeping?"
"I have no idea how it was taken out of my keeping."
"Did you see it, when you woke in the morning?"
"No."
"Has Miss Verinder recovered possession of it?"
"No."
"Mr. Blake! there seems to be something here which wants clearing up.
May I ask how you know that the Diamond is, at this moment, in London?"
I had put precisely the same question to Mr. Bruff when I made my first
inquiries about the Moonstone, on my return to England. In answering
Ezra Jennings, I accordingly repeated what I had myself heard from the
lawyer's own lips--and what is already familiar to the readers of these
pages.